On 10 April 2019, we witnessed a breakthrough moment – The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project revealed the first ever image of a black hole. A picture of the gargantuan black hole at the heart of the nearby galaxy Messier 87 (M87) was captured by the EHT, which is a network of eight radio telescopes spanning locations from Antarctica to Spain and Chile. More than 200 scientists, Taiwanese included, paid their efforts and toiled for years to produce the image by combining signals from eight separate radio observatories across the world. Events in astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology always catch people’s imagination.

As known, though Einstein himself was skeptical the existence of black holes, he predicted black holes with his theory of relativity. In fact, astronomers collected overwhelming results that these cosmic sinkholes are out there, including recent detection of gravitational waves that rippled across the cosmos when pairs of them collided. The subject featured in the May issue highlights the state-of-the-art simulations to study cosmic explosion, the formation of planet, the accretion disk, the gravitational waves, and the latest discovery of cosmic re-ionization. In addition to black holes, the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, as the leading agency dedicated to promoting scientific and technological developments, has granted numerous astronomic proposals. To explore our beautiful universe, I expect experts worldwide to join us; together we are able to make amazing things happen.